Shadow Play

American Poetry Review, The, May/Jun 2003 by Althaus, Keith

.........
And those figures
in the street,
leaving
one by one,
were guides,
without words
or explanation,
lamps,
now going blind,
and around their hollow bases
runs the blood of shadows

It's A New Dawn

Mount Sumbing is located to the northwest of Magelang District. Views of the stratovolcano peak can be enjoyed through the district as well as from the top of Candi Borobudur. At peak altitude of 3,371m and last recorded eruption in 1730, Mt Sumbing is neither the tallest volcano or the most active one. Nonetheless, this mountain is pleasing in its graceful gradient and somewhat mystical when viewed above the morning mist of dawn.

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Athens of the North

Edinburgh's (actually Scotland's) National Monument was designed as a folly (though this has been questioned), based on Acropolis, Athens - not the result of lack of funds (though see penultimate paragraph).

Built as a National Monument to the Napoleonic Dead, £24,000 was raised by a committee for its construction. Drawings only show exactly what we now see, so the architect C R Cockerell and his assistant William Playfair intended the incomplete appearance.

The National Monument was intended to be a memorial to those who died in the Napoleonic Wars. It is a potent symbol and can be seen both from Princes St and silhouetted from the East such as Gosford Bay near Longniddry with the Castle framed between Calton Hill and Arthurs Seat (recommended viewpoint).

Designed by an English proponent of the Greek Revival architecture, C R Cockrell, The National Monument project was assisted by a young William Henry Playfair who was to go on to complete even more successful works. C.R. Cockerell's most famous building is his St George's Hall, Liverpool which features in most Books covering British Architecture.

The Monument foundations were laid during the visit of King George IV to Edinburgh in 1824. Work came to an end in 1929 when the money provided by public subscription ran out - due in part to the ambitious scale of the monument. While it has been suggested that the architect had deliberately designed only 12 columns of the National Monument, it was later to be described as "Scotland's shame".

The prominent Grecian columns of this and other buildings in Edinburgh has led to Edinburgh being described as the "Athens of the North".